The Invasion From Mars Paperback 1st

Hadley Cantril

On Halloween night 1938, Orson Welles broadcast a radio adaptation of the H. G. Wells fantasy, The War of the Worlds. What listeners heard sounded so realistic that at least a million were frightened by word that "strange creatures" from Mars had landed in central New Jersey and were "unleashing a deadly assault." Several thousand were so terrified they ran into the streets, drove away in their cars, or called the police for information about how to escape. Why did so many panic when the circumstances reported were so improbable? That is just the question Hadley Cantril, then a young social psychologist, set out to answer. Originally published in 1940, The Invasion from Mars remains a classic. The broadcast provided a unique real-life opportunity to explore why the relatively new medium of radio could have such an effect. Using a mix of research methods, Cantril shows that the impact of the broadcast had less to do with what went out over the air than with the "standards of judgment" people did or did not use in evaluating what they were hearing. This book is of continuing value to those interested in communications and mass behavior.

1412804701

9781412804707

English

Transaction Publishers

30-May-2005

256

Hadley Cantril (1906-1969) was chairman of the Institute for International Social Research. Earlier he founded the Office of Public Opinion Research and was Stuart Professor of Psychology at Princeton University. He was author of nineteen books and monitored public opinion for the executive branch during World War II.

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